That's the way it is here. If the spouse's employer has coverage available that is less in cost than what we pay, the spouse has to take that coverage. It kind of sucks if your spouse is working part-time just to have some extra cash, yet all of the paycheck would go for health insurance that wouldn't be needed if they weren't working.
From: Andrew S. Baker [mailto:asbz...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 9:28 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Off topic - Career Job Advice >> I have never heard of families being forced to split coverage, have dual deductibles and quite possibly being forced to have different doctors and hospitals. This has often been standard for dual-income families. Some organizations will let you waive coverage if you're already under a spouse's coverage. But some will not, if the coverage is available to both parties separately. This is true even in private sector. ASB (My XeeSM Profile) <http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker> Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage... Signature powered by WiseStamp <http://www.wisestamp.com/email-install> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Kennedy, Jim <kennedy...@elyriaschools.org> wrote: Good point. My 1 percent raise this year was offset and then some by health insurance increases. It was a net loss. And if my wifes employer offers health insurance to her (no matter what the cost to her is) I cannot have her on mine. I have never heard of families being forced to split coverage, have dual deductibles and quite possibly being forced to have different doctors and hospitals. But when the local paper published my salary they didn't mention any of that. -----Original Message----- From: Joseph Heaton [mailto:jhea...@dfg.ca.gov] Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 10:04 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Off topic - Career Job Advice Wow Jim, you get raises? I've only been with the state for almost 3 years, but from what I've been told, it's been like 7 or 8 years since state employees here in California have gotten raises. And the last 5% raise was evened out by a 5% increase in benefit premiums. The negative gap here has only gotten larger... and you're right about public opinion of public workers. It's very sad that the general public around here thinks we the workers have had anything at all to do with the situation the state is in. >>> "Kennedy, Jim" <kennedy...@elyriaschools.org> 8/17/2010 5:37 AM >>> Not giving you a hard time here, just pointing out the finer points of that article. They are using the word 'compensation' and you are using the word 'pay'. Yep, our compensation includes the vacation, retirement and health care. All of which are traditionally much better than the private sector. But our pay has been traditionally lower. What has happened over the last 5 to 10 years is the value of the health benefits has goon up dramatically so that has narrowed that gap. Then the recent economic disaster has caused private sector pay to freeze and get lowered. That is what has created the gap the news is making a big deal out of. Yep, we are still getting our yearly 1 or 2 percent raises while the private sector gets nothing or is getting cuts. In the good economic times we get 3 tops and private sector people are getting 5+. The reality is that during difficult economic times us government workers pretty much always get accused of this. But during good economic times when the private sector pay is growing by leaps and bounds and everyone is getting bonuses and profit charing nobody points out that we are getting next to nothing, and the news and the public don't pay any attention. I believe it all evens out, more or less. People just need to look at the whole picture and get all the facts. On Aug 17, 2010 12:46 AM, "Angus Scott-Fleming" <angu...@geoapps.com<mailto:angu...@geoapps.com>> wrote: On 16 Aug 2010 at 15:08, Joseph Heaton wrote: > I wish my salary was equal to the private sector. ... Must be different in IT vs the rest of the country, then. Latest I've seen suggest that public-sector jobs pay twice as much at the federal level and 18- 20% more at the state and local level than the equivalent private-sector job. ============= Included Stuff Follows ============= The Latest in The War Between Public & Private Sector Workers: "The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade." - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine Put down that coffee or soda before reading the latest of the massive and growing gap between public and private sector compensation: Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade. Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available. The federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year. But wait, there's more: What the data show: oBenefits. Federal workers received average benefits worth $41,791 in 2009. Most of this was the government's contribution to pensions. Employees contributed an additional $10,569. oPay. The average federal salary has grown 33% faster than inflation since 2000. USA TODAY reported in March that the federal government pays an average of 20% more than private firms for comparable occupations. The analysis did not consider differences in experience and education. oTotal compensation. Federal compensation has grown 36.9% since 2000 after adjusting for inflation, compared with 8.8% for private workers. The article notes that defenders of federal pay levels argue that public employers tend to have more education than their private sector counterparts. Which, as much as anything, probably reflects credentialism run amok as a demonstrated need for specialized skills. Read the whole thing here. ============= Included Stuff Ends ============= More here with links: http://reason.com/blog/2010/08/10/the-latest-in-the-war-between But I digress from the original OT post. I'm voting with Kurt, take the private-sector job. Angus -- Angus Scott-Fleming GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona 1-520-290-5038 Security Blog: http://geoapps.com/ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftwar... ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
